


This is my life story

by DisneyBroadway123



Category: The Breakfast Club (1985)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 13:05:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11875122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisneyBroadway123/pseuds/DisneyBroadway123
Summary: What if there was a sixth girl in the Breakfast Club? Her name is Christine Huston and she has a tragic past that has led her to that detention room. Her best friend since she moved to the small town of Shermer Illinois is the resident punk John Bender. She fell for him when he first protected her from preppy bullies picking on her for dreaming. This is her story.





	This is my life story

_My name is Christine Daee Huston, yes I am named after the leading lady Christine Daee from Phantom Of The Opera. I happen to love my name because my papa gave me the name when he adopted me at birth and I became his baby girl or little Lottie. My papa passed away when I was fourteen and I moved to Shermer Illinois with my papa's best friend Julia Huston to get a break from the pace that had caused me so much pain as an adolescent. At first after my papa died I hadn't smiled for nearly three months afterwards no matter what my Auntie did to try to make me smile. Until, I met a boy. I was being bullied by some popular girls on my first week of Shermer High School and suddenly a person was in front of me. A druggie with long hair and a smirk that a lot of people feared named John Bender. I fell hard and fast for the bad boy the instant he offered me a hand off the ground when I was having a sensory overload during a group project that we worked on together for an amazing book called The Outsiders. He's the thing that keeps me sane and happy during most days when I just want to curl up into a  tiny ball and forget about the rest of the universe. I became quick friends with the other druggies at our school despite being stone cold sober, they were a group that I grew to love and we all became super close friends. I had this necklace it was the last thing my father ever gave me before the passed away and he had engraved on it 'I will send you the angel of music baby girl.' Yesterday, during my one class without John, my PE class I felt a yank from behind my neck and some preppy was dangling my favorite possession in her hands and then she dropped it and slammed her foot down thus crushing my favorite piece of jewelry. I got so angry that I attacked her which was of course the only part that the teacher saw. We got sent to vice principal Devil excuse me I meant Vernon's office where the she witch I'm sorry the preppy then lied and said that she was just trying to talk to me about my day and I got angry and attacked her which Vernon somehow believed. I got detention for next three weeks with John, who pulled the fire alarm to get out of doing an important math exam he forgot to tell me about so I could help him study._

 

I woke up to the sounds of Ramin's version of Music Of The Night and swooned when I got a text from John not a minute later.

_John: Morning Chrissy!! You ready for hell with the Devil in carnet today? I wish we had gym together I would have pounded that preppy for you, I can't believe that Dick believed that you an angel could attack somebody with no reasoning._

_Me: Morning John!! I am ready for hell not so much seeing the Devil though, can't we just tie him up and not have to worry about him :p. I am glad actually that you don't have my gyn class because I need to stand up for myself once in a great long while don't I?_

_John: Of course I believe that you can stand up for yourself!! I just feel bad that she did that to you. You're dad gave you that necklace when he died didn't he?  
_

_Me: Yes he did he had it engraved as well, now I can never get it back..._

_John: See, this is why I would've pounded that preppy not to defend you, but because seeing you sad breaks my heart. Chrissy you have been so strong for so long I just want to carry a fraction of that weight. Did you have a sensory overload in Dick's office yesterday?_

_Me: Thank god no, If I did I would have never lived that down. I had one when I got home though when it finally all hit me, luckily Auntie Julia was out for a meeting at the time._

_John: You should have texted me, you know I would have ran all the way to your place. All the six blocks just to comfort you and make sure that you were okay. But, alas we need to get ready for the Devil himself. First one there saves the other a seat?_

_Me: You bet!! See you there._

I was so flustered after just texting him and wishing that this crush would just get a life of it's own. I got out of bed slowly brushed out my chestnut curls with a hair brush and found my outfit for the day. A magenta tee shirt covered with rose designs white skirt and white leggings underneath.

I put a pink and light blue flower crown that John had gotten me for my last birthday and grabbed my Phantom messenger bag plus my Ugg boots and rushed out the door. I began the very short five minute walk to school, once there I headed to the library and saw that I was the first one there. I plugged my earbuds into my phone and took out my sketchbook where a well crafted Phantom looked back at me while letting the sounds of my favorite musical rush over me.

_"Think of me, think of me fondly when we've said goodbye. Remember me, once and a while promise me you'll try. When you've found that once again you long to take your heart and break free if you ever find a moment spare a thought for me. We never said our love was evergreen or as changing as the sea. But if you can still remember, stop and think of me. Think of all the things we've shared and seen don't think about the way things might have been. Think of me, think of me  waking silent and resigned imagine trying too hard to put you from my mind. Recall those days, look back on all those times. Think of the things we'll never do there will never be a day when I won't think of you. (Raoul) Can it be? Can it be Christine? Bravo!! Long ago it seems so long ago. How young and innocent we were! She may not remember me but I remember her. Flowers fade, the fruits of summer fade they have there seasons so do we but please promise me that  sometimes you will think ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah Of Me!"_

"Miss Huston, take out your headphones!!" Vernon yelled at me standing in front of my desk and regarding me with scorn.

"Yes, sir how can I help?" I tried my hardest to at least be nice to him, seeing as he was higher up in the ranks then I was. 

"What is with your obsession with musical theater anyway, this is a small town in Illinois not New York City." Vernon ordered me to answer him.

"You're very right sir, we are in Illinois. But, I was raised in the City of New York and moved here almost three years ago..." I told him avoiding eye contact.

"You know Huston you should look adults in the eye that's another week of detention." I inwardly groaned and went back to my sketch book and began a Christine on the stage of the Opera Populaire.

I looked up from my pencil and paper when I heard the door whoosh open and saw the resident prom queen Claire Standish walk through the door and give me the death glare from her seat. I guess she was friends with the preppy from yesterday I thought to myself feeling around my neck for my Phantom necklace and then realizing that it was no longer there I sighed and felt more tears come to me but quickly dried them as the door opened again and the king of the wrestling league walked through the door Andrew Clark. He was in my literature and history class with John and we both agreed he was your typical jock, jerk and not the amount of brain cells to keep up with him. Next came my friend Allison Reynolds from my art class and we silently said hey with our sign language. I was hoping that next would come John, but in came Brain Johnson who I knew from the halls and from gym class but he was strangely gone yesterday, he always tried to make peace with anybody. Finally from outside I heard the heavy sounds of John's boots coming through the doorway and sighed with gratefulness that he was finally here. I locked eyes with me and I glanced down blushing like a crazy person when he winked at me. Goddammit crush go away your so useless against me.

"This seat taken Chrissy?" He teased already knowing the answer and sitting down in the seat opposite mine and smirking.

"Well since you already sat down and everything, I guess you can have it..." I joked back trailing off as I began to sketch out Christine's hair and outfit that I still remembered to this day. I saw John writing on a slip of paper and turned it towards me.

_I didn't draw too much attention to you did I?_

I laughed a little at the creativeness because that was the way we usually communicated snarky remarks that we just wanted to keep to ourselves.

_I'm fine there's not enough people in here to give me a sensory overload. Though her highness did send a glare my way, which was weird because I have never done anything to her. Unless she's good friends with the preppy from yesterday..._

I heard him scoff next to me and whisper to me for just me to hear.

"Don't pay attention to her, need me to make her croak like a toad?" He asked jokingly as we were both hollering with laughter at the joke he made everybody in the room was staring at us. 

"What? You've never heard two  best friends laughing before?!" John demanded trying to avert their attention from me which I would be forever thankful for. I could barley hear Claire respond.

"Yes, but never like hyenas, we're more respectable then that..." I heard John start to stand up and I was too late to talk him out of getting a fourth week of detention.

"Than quite frankly your highness you have never lived!!" Just as he sat back down in his spot next to mine and gave me one of his adorable small smiles that were pretty much only meant for me and I inwardly swooned Vernon walked through the door.

"Well, well here we are. I wanna credit you for being on time..." Vernon's well practiced monologue that John joked he did in front of the mirror every morning before coming here he was interrupted by Claire.

"Excuse me, sir, I think there's been some kind of mistake. I know it's detention, but I don't think I belong here."

I saw John scoff and roll his eyes at her response and write on the side of my sketch.

_Aww, poor princess couldn't talk her way out of this one. It's not like she actually skipped class and got caught doing it, unlike you who was wrongfully accused of attacking someone..._

I bite back a laugh and wrote back to him.

_You gotta feel bad for her... Maybe daddy will pay her an all expenses trip to France and she'll stay there._

John did not even try to bite back his bubbling laugh and Vernon walked in front of us.

"Something you want to share with us Bender, Huston?" He asked accusingly as I pleaded John with my eyes to at least try to play nice this one time.

"No Dick, we don't just a private joke between best friends. Surely even you had one of those growing up?" John replied and I too a grateful breath that could have gone far worse and maybe just maybe Vernon would drop the subject of course that didn't happen.

"Yes I did, but nothing like the two of you, why even hang around with her? Sure she's cute but she's as meek as a mouse and violent at that I guess she gets that from you huh Bender?" Vernon berated my character even more but I tuned him out closing on myself as everyone stared at me a combination of confused and rather freaked out at the way I was acting.

"She might be shy and really quite but that's not her fault you son of a bitch it's called Aspergers. And what are you talking about violent?! That preppy took something very important of hers and broke it right in front of her face!!" John got up from his seat and went to stand next to Vernon looking very intimating.

"And what exactly did she steal from you Miss Huston?" Vernon asked me nearly seething with anger and I shakily  got up and stood in front of my chair as well.

"What that preppy stole and broke was an engraved necklace of the Phantom necklace that my papa gave me on his death bed sir." I answered him drying the tears that were fester in my eyelids.  I saw John's anger diminish and saw him out of the corner of my eye move forward to put his arm around me.

"While I would love to believe that sob story, not a word of that's true in the slightest I believe what Miss Kathleen told me yesterday she's never lied before. Maybe you should think about that and get checked into a mental place for being a compulsive liar, I mean you call John Bender your best friend." Vernon lectured lashing out at us and regarding us with a look of distain. I saw John stand up and looking like he would punch Vernon in the face and I looked at him and mouthed the words 'don't'.

"It is now seven ten. You have exactly eight hours and fifty minutes to think about why you are here. To ponder the error of your ways..." I saw John spit into the air ten catching trying to make me laugh which worked and I gave his attempt a light round of applause. Claire looked back at that moment and gave us a look of absolute disgust and scorn. I began to tune Vernon out and only heard bits and pieces of his speech.

"You may not speak. You will not move from these seats." He came by me and John's table and took my sketchbook cellphone and earbuds.

"And you will not sleep, draw or listen to music." I almost had a sensory overload right then and there because Vernon began to flip through my sketchbook.

"Hey Dick, give that back to her she needs those!!" John said standing up from his chair.

"Well, if the violent girl wants them she can tell me how she knows how to draw these character so well." Vernon ordered and I put my hand on John's arm and he sat down slowly.

"I have seen The Phantom Of The Opera close to thirteen times in my entire life, it was my adoptive papa's favorite musical before he passed away. Hence why he named Christine Daee Levitt. When he died, I was put under my Auntie Julia's care and if you don't believe me sir, then check my records you'll find my adoption papers in there." I explained taking my sketchbook and cellphone from him and leaving him speechless. Once Vernon recovered he walked around the room handing out papers and continuing his speech.

"Alright people, we're going to be trying something a little different today. We are going to write an essay of no less than one thousand words describing to me exactly who you think you are." Vernon reached me and John in the back row he dropped a piece of paper to each of us.

"Is this a test?" John asked sarcastically exactly what I was thinking. He got ignored by the big man in charge of us for the day though.

"And when I say essay... I mean essay. I do not mean the same word repeated one thousand times or the lyrics to Phantom Of The Opera. Are we clear Bender, Huston?" Vernon continued pressing the issue with me and him. 

"Crystal..." We both said annoyed   and we turned to each other and laughed at each others goofiness.

"Good. Maybe you'll learn a little bit about yourself. Maybe decide wether or not you want to return." Vernon pressed onwards but was interrupted by Brian.

"You know I could answer right now sir... That'd be a no for me cause..."  Vernon stoped his tirade 

"Sit down Johnson!!"

"Thank you sir" He sat back down embarrassed at the attention drawn to him.

"My office is right down the hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised. Any questions?" He asked his small crowd and John raised his hand and I bit my lip in case it was something that made me laugh.

"Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?" I was so glad that I bite my lip before hand otherwise that laugh would have slipped out and I would have gotten another detention.

"I'll give you the answer to that question Bender next Saturday with your little girlfriend. Don't mess with the bull you two you get the horns." With that he gratefully finally left the room. I began to sketch a Meg Giry and out of the corner of my eye I saw Alison sign something to me. 

_Have you really seen Phantom thirteen times?_

I laughed quietly and replied to her question.

_Yeah, I love it a lot don't judge me man it's the greatest experience of my life!! I love those characters._

She gave me a quite smile and smirked at me.

_That's adorable, can you quote the entire show?_

_Yes I can, easily._

_What's your favorite line?  
_

_That's really hard for me but I think it would be a line from Masquerade. It's the one that goes Masquerade paper faces on parade, Masquerade hid your face so the world will never find you. Made me cry a little bit every time I watched it._

She gave me a little smile and went back to biting on her nails everyone began to turn around and face her. 

"You know if you keep eating your hand, you won't be hungry for lunch." John deadpanned and I saw Alison send him a glare and spit her nail out at him with a terrible aim. 

"I've seen you before you know..." John told her teasingly and of course he had they were friends as well because she was really good friends with me. I heard Claire mutter to herself as Brian was doing something with his pen making it into a walrus while John began to do the guitar riff to the 'Sunshine of love' 

"I can't believe this is really happening to me..." John abruptly cursed and stopped his humming.

"What do you do if you gotta take a piss?" He asked our group and got the look of disgust even from me at that one and I turned my head down to face the table plugging in my earbuds and turning on the soundtrack to Fantastic Beasts while I worked on my Meg in Il Muto.  I heard a bunch of yelling and turned up my music to drown it out, I did however still hear John interrogating the preppies in front of us. I felt John gently nudge my shoulder stopping my artwork.

"Yes, how can I help you dear sir?" I asked him jokingly 

"What do you say I go and close that door, and you can focus without having Dick coming in here every five seconds?" He asked me with a smirk that always made me melt somewhere inside of my skin.

"Well... I mean... Won't you get in massive trouble for that John?" I mentioned quietly so as to not draw attention to us.

"Eh, most likely, however I don't really care. You'll cover for me though right?" He explained excitedly and I could never say no to him.

"Fine, but you'll owe me big time for one." I responded with a shy smile sent his way as he winked and moved up a few rows to look the exact opposite of innocent. I laughed at the strict idea of John Bender being innocent in any way, shape or form. He moved to the door grabbed a chair and started fiddling around with the screw. The screw came apart easily like the probably flimsy and cheaply made piece of trash that it was.

"What's he gonna do?" Claire asked suspiciously.

"Drop dead I hope." Andrew replied and if I had half the guts I would have pounded him right there Bender style. I heard a lot of the things he said about my best friend while my earbuds were in and they were not very nice words. At that exact moment the door chose to slam shut and I jumped a little bit at the sudden noise and saw Alison send me a worried gaze.

_You alright? Honestly he's your best friend you could choose to ditch him._

I knew that Alison was just messing with me by the mischievous glint in her eyes.

_Yeah Ali I'm fine no need to worry about me. He is my best friend for reasons you should understand._

_Yes, but you're in love with him not me._

I flushed to my neck and heard Allison laugh at my reaction.

_Shut up ass, you knew that was going to happen._

_I'm telling you he feels the same way about Chris!! Look how he rushes to defend your honor from the spawn of Satan._

I thought about what she said as I heard Andrew yell again.

"That's very funny, come on fix it!!" Brian got his word in too though a little bit more meekly.

"You should really fix that door!" John walked back to the row where we were sitting handed me the screws and kissed the top of hand when I blushed I heard Allison laugh at me again.

"Am I a genius?" John asked aloud as he put an arm around me.

"No, your an asshole!!" Andrew proclaimed as he stared at me.

"What?" I asked him making eye contact with him or rather trying at least.

"How can you date somebody like him?! He's a druggie prick!!" Andrew yelled at me.

"We are not dating.... He's simply my best friend. Nothing more and nothing less." I told him quietly avoiding any eye contact at all.

"I've been in this situation before everyone just calm down." John told everyone softly in order to not have me getting a sensory overload from everything.

"No! Get up there and fix the door!" Andrew screamed angrily.

"SHUT UP!! You're gonna freak out Chrissy!!" John yelled back at him.

"Who the fuck cares?! Put back the screw!!" Claire yelled at us.

"Don't talk to her that way!!" John yelled back covering my ears as I felt a sensory overload come over my body. Vernon came running into the room.

"Who took out that screw?!" He demanded and for a moment everything was silent in the library as I calmed myself down.

"Why is that door closed?" Vernon pressed standing at the front of the room with his hands on his hips.

"How are we supposed to know? We're not supposed to move right?" John replied with questions of his own wrapping both arms around me and quietly humming music of the night to get me back from my sensory overload.

"Why?" Vernon asked Claire getting no answers from anybody else in the room.

"We were just sitting here like we were supposed to..." Claire told him telling him a little white lie I could see that John was surprised she kept our cover.

"Who closed that door?" He asked us as a group yet again and this time it was John who spoke up.

"I think a screw fell out of it sir..." 

"It jut closed sir..." Andrew  continued our story. Vernon then turned to Allison and she paled at the thought of being put on the spot

"Who?!" Vernon demanded as Ali stuttered then squeaked slamming her head on the desk. I felt bad for the only girl to show me remotely any kindness in the hellhole of a school. John had her covered though thankfully.

"She doesn't talk sir..." I almost would have laughed at him, Allison could talk she was just extremely shy, but once she did talk oh boy was she a riot. Vernon then turned to me and John and got up in John's space and he had to let me go though he seemed hesitant this time and I wondered why.

"Give me that screw!!" Vernon demanded and I was tempted to lie and say it was me that took the screw just to get him to stop screaming at my best friend. 

"I don't have it..." John protested still sitting but grabbing my hand rubbing small circles into it to keep me calm and sitting down. 

"You want to me to yank you outta that seat and shake it out of you?!" Vernon yelled at us.

"I don't have it... Screws fall out all the time, the worlds an imperfect place, especially if the door is cheaply made in the beginning Dick." John explained his lie to Vernon luckily all of these guys except for me and Brain have amazing poker faces thankfully I think Vernon forgot I was here. Wouldn't be the first time that has happened.

"Give it to me Bender!!" Vernon grabbed the hem of John's jean jacket and he huffed. Claire however saved me from making it known of my existence in the room again.

"Excuse me sir, why would anybody want to steal a screw?" Vernon turned to face her and stare her down.

"Watch it young lady, watch it..." He then tried and failed to use a chair to hold the door open and the chair went flying down the hallway as me and John were crying with laughter at everything that had led to this moment.

"GODDAMMIT!!" We heard Vernon scream as he came back.

"Andrew Clark get up here... Front and center come on let's go. " As he called Andrew up to help with god knows what I looked to John with the question of what the hell now resting in the space between us.

"Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he get's up, we'll all get up! It'll be anarchy!!" John protested getting me to laugh even harder at his tone of voice. I saw them try to move a magazine rack to block the door. I wrote next to my sketch 

_That's a great idea guys... What if there is a fire though!!_

John laughed and decided to take my advice.

"That's very clever sir, but what if there's a fire? I think violating the lives of children would be unwise at this juncture of your career sir." I laughed quietly at his joke that he took from me and we both smiled.

"Alright, what are you with this? Get this outta here for gods sake!! What's the matter with you? Come on!" Vernon berated Andrew trying to blame his horrible idea onto him and I felt the sudden urge to actually tell him what happened to his screw then lie to save John saying that I took it out.

"You know there are fire exists on either side of the library?" Brain informed me and John to which I nodded because I knew that but, I was trying to get Vernon out of here and fast.

"Show Dick some respect!!" John scolded Brain to which I chuckled.

"Says the man who hasn't shown him respect from the moment I met him..." I mentioned to him in a whisper tone still trying to just go unnoticed.

"That doesn't matter now..." John told me with a laugh at the idea of him respecting Vernon in any way shape or form. We saw the man in question direct Andrew back to his chair.

"I expected a little more from a varsity letterman!!" Vernon scolded Andrew and I was this close to just telling him that white lie.

"You're not fooling anybody, Bender. The next screw that falls out will be you." I heard John mutter a response that sounded like 'eat my shorts' and I feared what would happen next.

"What was that?" Vernon turned on his heal. I gave John a look that screamed don't do this you'll get stuck here for longer. I spoke for him instead thinking screw it (literally).

"He said he knows what happened to the screw sir. And for once this one was not his fault, it was mine. I wanted some peace and quite to sketch and listen to my music. Here's the screw to prove it..." I gave him the screw that I put in my Phantom bag and handed it to him.

"You have two months in here for breaking the rules Miss Huston, and I thought you were actually put here on accident and Miss Kathleen was lying to me but I guess she wasn't and you really did attack her yesterday." Vernon told me slapping the hand that had the screw when he took it and left the room.

Everyone was starring at the moment including my best friend in question.

"What in the fuck were you thinking?" John asked me quietly and taking the hand that got slapped.

"It's high time I start standing up for you and repaying you for everything that you have done for me since Freshman year. Plus I knew that once you said what you actually said that it would turn into a shouting match between you two." I explained to him with a small smile drying the tears that had ventured there from the lecture. Allison came to sit down in front of us and turned the chair around.

"Did you really just stand up to the Devil in carnet?! And did the little angel lie to an adult at the same time... John I think you're tainting her!!" Allison told him in a quiet hushed tone. We all laughed at the silliness of my best girl friend who was absolutely crazy. We were all bored out of my mind and exhausted from having to wake up so damn early. I fell asleep on John's shoulder and I felt a light kiss to my head and I instantly gave him a soft smile in return. 

_In my dream I heard music and I was in a place entirely in white. I heard a soft piano tune coming from a giant room where my papa sat preforming in front of nobody he loved to do that. Just hearing orchestra piano music that either he or I played._

_"Papa?" I called out trying to get his attention, I hadn't dreamed about him in nearly two years and I was crying a lot at this point._

_"Baby girl? Little Lottie?! What in heavens name are you doing here?" My papa asked me sweeping me up and into his arms and I nuzzled myself closer to him._

_"I honestly have no idea how I got here, I guess I am still missing you and it just hit me." I told my father hoping that he didn't hate me._

_"Oh, sweetheart there's no way you should still be missing me, you have that boy that you're in love with right?" My papa questioned me with a small smile._

_"Yes I do, his name is John Bender. But how on earth did you know that?" I replied really confused at this point._

_"Each person when they die before their time like myself, gets to be a guardian angel over the person they love the most in the entire world. You're the person that I chose to look after. And if I were still alive I would have regarded John with massive scorn and told him he's not good enough for my little girl. But, as you and I got to know him better, I think that you're the one person alive who can ever possibly save that boy from his own self destruction maybe even make something out of him." My papa explained to me with a chuckle._

_"Where is your Phantom necklace by the way?" I heard my papa ask with fear in his eyes of me losing it._

_"That's kind of a long story and it's how I ended up in detention today. So the preppies at Shermer all hate my guts because of the people I choose to spend my time with and there's this extremely bitchy one named Kathleen and I have gym class with her second to last period. She came running up behind me and unclasped the necklace around my neck. She waved it in front of me in a what in the hell is this thing? kind of way while taunting me with it. Once she realized how important it is to me she dropped it 'accidentally' then crushed it with her shoe by slamming her foot down on top of my necklace. I of course got super angry with her and punched her in the face, sending both of us to Devil I mean Mr. Vernon our vice principal's office. He said he of course wanted to hear Kathleen's side of the story first and she lied and said that I just attacked her for no sensible reason. This got me sent to detention which is where I am right now asleep on John's shoulder..." As I finished my story and told him everything I felt my tears being dried but not by papa, it must have been John in the real world._

_"That bitch!! here hold on I have just the thing to make all of this better..."  My father cursed shaking his fist at the sky and I felt him leave and come back when he did he held out a tiny box for me to open. As I did I saw a new Phantom necklace this time it was the exact same except instead of a rose it held the monkey music box. With it inside of the box I saw there were Phantom mask earrings as well and I held onto him so tightly as if he might drift away from me when I heard somebody shouting_

"WAKE UP!!" 

I jumped out of my seat and opened my hand up to see if the new necklace and earrings were still there and they were.

"Who has to use the laboratory!!" Vernon shouted and we all raised our hands including myself and felt new tears trickle down my cheeks as we walked outside.

I saw Allison walk up next to me and John and started to sign to me

_You were crying in your sleep John was really concerned for you._

I blushed and signed back to her.

_Sorry, I will explain my dream to you guys when we get back to the classroom._

After using the restroom I looked in the mirror and put in my new Phantom Of The Opera masked earrings taking out the sliver studs that Auntie Julia bought for me.I wanted to wait until I got back to John to put back on my new necklace because I couldn't put it on myself. I saw Claire coming out the restroom at the exact same time.

 ~~~~"So, I have a question for you..." She told me in her prissy little voice.

"I may or may not have the answer that you're looking for Queenie..." I replied trying to use minimal sarcasm.

"Well, I was wondering about your relationship status with John and just looking out for another girl he seems like a train wreck.... Are you sure that you are just best friends?" Honestly at this point I was about ready to just up and leave her in here. However, I am far too nice to actually do that to somebody.

"Yes I am sure that we are just best friends. He'll never feel the same way that I do... That answer your question Claire?" I told her avoiding her at all costs and looking down at my shoes that were suddenly really interesting.

 ~~~~"Yes it does and I'm sorry but you need to grow a pair of eyes that boy is so in love with you it's all in his eyes and facial features when he looks at you. I love those boots by the way where did you get them?" Claire told me and for a moment I thought she was actually being genuine.

"Guess they make up for my meek mousy personality then huh?" I quoted her from our first week of school together during lunch. I then turned on my heel and waited for Allison to come out of the restroom. When she did she sent me a concerned gaze and signed to me.

_What was that about? Think she's interested in John?_

I swallowed and sign back looking at the ground.

_I have honestly no idea about anything anymore Ally I just want to go home right now._

She shook her head at me and sent me a small smile.

_That won't solve anything Chris and you know it. You have to be strong and for the record the princess was right about something._

I blushed and replied back with a smile.

_What's that?_

_That you need to grow a pair of eyes when it comes to John... He is totally head over heels for you and you just need to go for it._

I flushed again and laughed at her at the idea of John feeling the same way that I do.

_That's impossible and you need to let it go Ally. He'll never see me that way and I am perfectly fine with that. Just being the stereotypical best friend and he needs me to be just that._

_You're out of you're mind young lady, just tell him that you love him, he'll be over the moon and you'll have your first great one._

_Haha nice Bronx Tale reference I loved seeing that show come to life._

At this point we had the big group again and we went to the library again and shut the door behind us. It was ten forty five and I needed to have a best friend meeting in the fiction section of the library.

 ~~~~"What's so important that you had to drag both of us over here?" John asked me concerned about the way I acting.

"It's about the dream that I had during nap-time over here." I replied making sure none of the others were around I just didn't trust any of them.

"Yeah, I was going to ask about that. What did you dream about darling?" John questioned me as we all sat down in a huddle near the Lord Of The Rings section maybe if I took one of those it would pass the time easier.

"Well obviously it was about my father and please don't think I'm crazy when I explain this and send me to a mental place please... In my dream the place was entirely white and I opened the door to the Majestic theater where Phantom plays and I saw my papa playing the overture in a white outfit and he saw me. That's the point when I probably started crying. I told him what happened to my necklace yesterday and he gave me these as a exchange saying he kept them for a long time until I turned seventeen but I hadn't dreamed about since I met you guys..." I explained my dream and I felt both of my best friends wrap me up in a group hug and I was squished in the middle of it.

"I completely understand, I had an Uncle the one person to give a shit about me in my family and he gave me my lighting bolt earrings and necklace to remind me of Percy Jackson." Allison told me and I knew she was telling the truth and I felt John go behind me and put my necklace and he combed his fingers through my hair as I sighed with contentment. We eventually had to move from our pile on the floor and I grabbed Fellowship Of The Ring to read aloud to John and Allison a little later if they wanted. They were both Dyslexic but loved when I read them books and they remembered the book easier if I did. As we went back to join the other three students in detention they all looked super bored and it was barely past eleven am. 

John found a book by Molyare about poetry and I hated his work so I just left him be tearing the pages out and I laughed at him.

"That's real intelligent" Andrew mentioned sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

"You're right it's wrong to destroy literature... and Molet really pumps my nads!!" John mentioned flippantly still ripping out pages as I read Fellowship to Allison back at our desks and Brain came over to join in my storytelling.

"Molyare" I corrected at the same time as Claire and he sent Claire a glare and me a look of awe at the fact that I could do two things at once.

"I love his work!!" Brain shot into the conversation before listening again as I told my favorite fantasy novel.

"Big deal... Not much else to do when you're locked in a vacancy..." Bender deadpanned coming over to my reading corner and straddling the chair next to mine and closed his eyes and tried to imagine the world of fantasy that I knew he loved as much as I did. Andrew brought him out of his thoughts.

"Speak for yourself..." He stretched on a nearby banister.

"You think I'd speak for you, I don't even know your language... Now leave me alone I'm trying to listen to the story." Andrew plucked the book from my hands and I looked up at him shocked.

"You guys should be trying to engage in conversation we have nothing else to do." Andrew went and put my book back on the shelf before I could say anything. 

"What the fuck was that about?!" John started to stand up and I wanted to plead him not to do this but I knew it was futile to get in the middle of an argument.

"I'm just trying to engage in conversation with you nerds, what's so great about that book anyhow?" Andrew asked clearly not knowing.

"My papa read that book to me when i was seven years old and it became my favorite book series in the entire world." I interjected and Andrew went to talk to Claire as I pulled out my sketchbook and began to draw a Legolas shooting a bow and arrow.

 "You grounded tonight?" Andrew asked Clair trying to make conversation.

"I don't know my mom said I was but my dad told me to just to blow her off." I rolled my eyes at her answer and wrote on a spare piece of paper.

_She should be grateful her parents are at least still alive and care somewhat about her..._

"You miss your dad don't you?" John asked me as I nodded my head. I started again to listen to more of their conversation with John.

"Big party at Stubbies, parents are in Europe. Should be pretty wild." Andrew told Claire and looked excitedly back.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah so can you go?" Andrew pressed obviously really wanting to go to this party with her.

"I doubt it..." Claire replied looking upset.

"How come?" Andrew questioned looking crushed.

"Well 'cause if I do what my mother tells me not to do, it's because my father says it's okay. There's like this whole big monster deal, it's endless and a total drag." Claire explained looking as if the very thought pained her. Then John decided to join the conversation moving a little in his seat and putting my feet on his lap. 

"Who do you like better?" He asked raising an eyebrow in question at this.

"They're both strict." Claire stated answering him in a high pitched voice. I decided to play along and see where this went.

"No he means if you had to live had to chose between one or the other if or when they get a divorce." I said and she looked me with wide owl eyes at the idea that I might want to actually make conversation.

"I dunno, I'd probably go live with my brother. I mean I don't think either one of them gives a shit about me, they just use me to get back at each other." Claire was interrupted by Allison who was next to me and John sketching a landscape.

"HA!!" She laughed sarcastically. Everyone looked at her shocked that she could actually make a sound.

"Shut Up!!" Claire shouted back at her.

"Leave my friend alone!!" I defended and got a grateful smile from said friend and a sign

_You didn't have to do that for me_

I gave her hand a light squeeze and signed back to her.

_Don't worry about it, you would have done the same thing for me._

"Your just feeling sorry for yourself." Andrew told his friend with a tone that screamed sarcasm.

"Yeah well if I didn't nobody else would." Claire announced and I groaned accidentally aloud and she turned back to stare at me.

"You got a problem freak?" She questioned me accusingly and John made the move to defend for probably the twenty millionth time that morning and I wanted to put her in her place this once.

"No, no problem here. I'm just saying that you should be grateful that you at least haven't had to watch your parent die right in front of your very eyes and not be able to do a damn thing about it. I lost my papa at fourteen years old, and now I have to live with someone that I am not even related to but she's trying her best to provide for me and make sure that I am alright." I explained to her as I watched her face pale and she sputtered out.

"B-but what about your mom? You don't have a mother anymore?" Claire asked me horrified.

"I have never had a mother, see the only "Mom" I have ever known is the one who gave me up. My papa was gay and having trouble finding a partner after his past away before I was even born." I told her with a sad smile.

"Kinda makes you think that you don't got it so bad now huh?" I asked her as I went to go sit back down with my Legolas and I looked across and I saw another piece of writing down below it that John must have written because it had his messy scrawl all over it.

_Meet me in the fiction section when you give her royal pain in my ass a good talking to._

I slowly and quietly made my way back up to the fiction section of the library glancing at my phone and saw it was just past eleven o'clock.

"What's up John? Is there something the matter?" I asked paincked at the thought of something coming up and could no longer come over after the day was finally over.

"No sweets nothing is the matter with me... I just gotta tell you something important..." He told me his chocolate brown eyes that sent warmth through my body not seeking out my own.

"Hey, avoiding eye contact is my thing, not yours. Where's the confident Mr. Badass John Bender?" I teased him trying to get him to give me just a little smile to make me feel like this conversation was not going bad places.

"I think he took a vacation today..." He trailed off and I held his hand for comfort as he began to say what was on his mind.

"I just want to get this out in the open because it's literally killing me inside the fact that you're so oblivious that you can't see how much I feel for you really.  Christine Daee Levitt I love you more than I have ever loved anything in my whole damn shitty life. You're the one good thing I have ever done, saving you from those rich bitches and protecting your good name even though you seem to want to keep me around. I love your sweet shy smile when I do something that you think is funny, for whatever reason that just does things to me. You're laugh, even though I know that you hate it when it makes you wheeze or snort because something is just that funny, is the most adorable thing on the face of this entire universe. I love when you get so focused on playing piano and singing with that beautiful voice of yours that you don't even hear anything or anybody come inside the room unless they are yelling. I love when your drawing and you get so absorbed in your work that your little tongue sticks out and you don't even know in the slightest or even care. I love when you babble or think out loud, I know that you hate it but I love it as much as I love every little quality about you. From your chestnut hair that you like to keep at exact length of the Christine Daee wig, to your eyes that sparkle when you get excited or when you smile at something. You're the one and only person in the entire planet who gives a rats ass about me as a person and tries to keep me in line to a degree. You love seeing musicals come to life because you know how hard the people involved have to work in order to get from pages to the stage because you spent fourteen years of you life revolving around that concept. I love how willing you are to stand up for anyone, especially me or Allison and you look so damn adorable when you don't understand a dirty joke that one of my other friends make. I love when you have a sensory overload. And I know that is the quality that you hate the most about yourself but hear me out here. You're usually so fucking strong and fiery that nobody in the world would dare mess with you, but when you have a sensory overload that's when you allow for comfort from others because you're so scared of people yelling or loud nosies or people looking at you and I want to protect you forever. My parents know of my feelings toward you and those were the worst kind of insults for me was when they would bring my feelings for you into arguments with me. When they would say 'Johnny you'll never be good enough for her you goddamn freeloading mother fucking son of bitch!! She's too perfect for you, go find some other girl that is like you a horrible person!!' Remember that night I came over to your house with a black eye and three bruised ribs? That was my dad with a baseball bat trying to beat some sense into me. That was the night that I truly knew how deep I already was with you. A month after we met and I was already in love with everything that you are and when I told you about my parents and set me down and put me up in your bedroom with the blow up mattress and you brought me hot cocoa that you made from scratch and just let me vent about everything in life that I hated. You stayed up all night with me just telling me that things will slowly but surely get better, that's another thing that I love about you Chrissy you're a never ending optimist. You always are looking on the bright side of things and making the people around you smile with you. When you showed all my druggie friends and I Phantom Of The Opera, after a long year of school and they asked you to put it on and i watched your eyes light up as you mouthed every word and every line of that entire movie. Not all of my friends might have understood why you love it so much but they were all so thankful that you shared that part of your life with them. Even through the tears that you always get during the graveyard scene and when it looks like you wanted to pause it you just went and grabbed a box of tissues and snacks for everyone and came back with a sad smile that was so broken. I knew in that moment that you were just as broken as I was and that you were something to be protected from the rest of the world. Something that should be covered with kisses every second that I had the chance, something to hold onto for the rest of my days and never ever let go of. I'm not a great guy for anybody, but for you I will die trying to be the perfect guy for you to mold and fix up. I just want a chance, I love you too much to keep doing this. Not being able to kiss you across every inch of your face and being able to be sickeningly sweet to the point that all my other friends will probably kick us out of the group because we're too adorable for them to handle." As John told me about his feelings I felt the sudden need to pinch myself because I so obviously fell asleep downstairs so I pinched my lower arm and bit back yelp of pain. Okay definitely not dreaming here, this must be really happening to me.

"John Buchanan Bender I love you more than anything. I thought my mad insane love for you was the most obvious thing on the planet because every single thing you do sends a blush to my cheeks and I can't stop it. The day you saved me from the bullies was the day that I fell in love with you, I used to think that kind of love was next to impossible for anybody. Then you came into my life and I heard all of those preppies scurry and run away, I thought you were the most handsome thing on the face of the planet. With that smirk that does things to my stomach and that tone of voice that just sends waves of warmth over my body. I love when you're laughing so hard that you have to breath in and pause in order to not make a scene and you're holding your stomach. When I first met all of your other friends I was really scared that I would get rejected for not being tough enough or smoke or drink or any of those things that you're other friends do. I love when you need me to hold your hand underneath the table in order to not blow up in somebody's face and get yourself expelled. I love the fact that you're broken because guess what? So am I. I never told you this but when my papa first died I didn't smile for three straight months. Not until you first held your hand out to me on that day of school and said 'Need a hand up Sweets?' I love when you get the adoring look in your eyes when I'm in the room or those little small smiles that most people don't see. When you came to my house that night I remember my Auntie had a freak out attack when she saw you, and took me up to my room. You told me how much you hated your parents and the rest of the world itself, but you still let me hold you while you cried about wishing that you had a different family. I wish that you were loved by your parents from the first day you were born, but tragically that didn't happen.  I am still glad that it happened, because it led me to by far the strongest man that I have ever met in my entire life. You could take down an entire army with insults and your fists. You're the only person I feel like, I can be myself around and you won't judge me whatsoever. My papa used to tell me stories about what he felt like was the greatest form of love that he had with Kyle. He told me that when we met the love of your life for that time being you hold onto them and never ever let them go. He also told me in the dream that if he was still alive he would have not liked you at first but when he sees the way you look at me he was reminded of his love with Kyle. You're sense of humor never fails to make me laugh even when it's been the longest day of my life, or I am having a sensory overload. You're the only person I have let see every last piece of me, the good parts, the bad parts, the parts that will make you want to treasure and I want to do the same things with you. I have seen all those parts the good parts being when you're alone with me or when you're with your friends and me just having a great time laughing at everything. The bad parts being that of you're parents and the way they treat you makes me want to give them  a piece of my freaking mind, I love caring for you when you show up at my house late at night, but I wish there was never a reason for you to hurt in anyway. The parts of you that I want to just grab hold of and never let go of are the little smiles, smirks and laughs at things that I write down or say. I am so sick of not feeling you holding me and never letting go, so tired of not ever knowing and I wish that I wasn't so oblivious and that I could have seen this sooner. The good-morning texts make me swoon, along with when you protect me from everything, even if I don't think that I need that sometimes I want to be protective over you. I want to be with you, I have wanted just that for almost four years now." I wrapped up my own confession I heard Allison yell.

"Guys it's eleven twenty five Vernon will be here in five minutes!!" We slowly got up but held hands and he kissed my check and laughed when I blushed bright pink. We had just gotten comfortable when I heard the door open.

"Alright girls that's, thirty minutes for lunch..." Vernon announced and I pulled out my lunch of two sandwiches since I knew that John doesn't have enough money usually for regular lunch so unless I pack extra he goes hungry, two apples, two homemade chocolate chip cookies and two bottles of strawberry lemonade that I made the night before that he was obsessed with.

"Here?" Andrew protested trying to get us all out of here.

"Here." Vernon answered with a glare.

"Well I think the cafeteria will be more appropriate for lunch sir..." Andrew kept persisting his cause.

"Well I don't care what you think Andrew!!" Vernon snapped at him.

"Uhh... Excuse me Dick... I mean Rich, will milk be made available to us." My boyfriend? I think at this point I wasn't sure because we got interrupted joined the conversation hiding our strawberry lemonade underneath the table.

"We're extremely thirsty sir." Andrew went right along with John's story for some weird reason.

"I have an extremely low tolerance for dehydration sir..." Claire said to Vernon joining our little group of protesters wanting some semblance of freedom and a break from detention that was actually pretty amazing.

"Relax we'll grab it!!" John said grabbing my hand and standing up collecting everyone's money from them.

"Ah, ah, ah grab some wood there you two. You honestly think I would let a druggie like you bender and your violent little whore leave this place, you guys must think I was born yesterday." I felt John tense up at the nickname and I knew that this wasn't going to end well, but I begged him with my eyes to let me handle him because I had little to no temper on my shoulders.

"I am in no way, shape, or form a whore sir." I told him even though deep down inside I was freaking out from all these eyes on me even if it was only seven people in the room at the moment.

"You're dating John Bender, there is no way..." I stopped his tangent right there.

"For almost five minutes sir, that's right for nearly four years we have been best friends. And I know that seems shocking to you sir, but that's all we were for these four years." I then sat down in my chair and saw a new note from John.

_That's my girl!! Are you okay though? There were a lot of eyes on you just now._

I laughed a little and wrote my response.

_I am fine babe honestly, though all these people starring at me right now is probably giving me a sensory overload deep down. I just wanted to ask, are we dating or..._

His response was said out loud to me but for me alone.

"You bet your ass we're dating. You're my girl now, and I'm not letting go of you anytime soon." I swooned outwardly and sighed when he wrapped an arm around my chair.

"Andrew Clark and... You hey, what's her name somebody wake her up." I gently shook Allison's shoulder who had just recently fallen asleep on her jacket.

"What's going on?" She whispered to me and John.

"You and Andrew are going to get us some drinks. Have fun!!" John responded to her question as she shot him a halfhearted glare. She smiled brightly at our held hands and signed to me.

_Told you so, I'm really happy for you two though, you're perfect for each other._

"What did she say?" John asked me not able to read our signs and I was glad because most of our signed conversations were about him.

"She said I told you so, and that she's really happy for us because we're perfect for each other." I translated with a small smile that reached my eyes.

"God I love that smile!! It feels so good to say that now..." John told me while resting his forehead to mine. I sighed with happiness and we were in our own little planet until...

"Ahem!!" Claire coughed trying to get our attention.

"Yeah, what your highness?" John asked irritated that our moment was gone and ruined.

"Glad to know that you two are dating now, honestly all that romantic tension back there was driving me batty." She told us with a smile. At first we looked at each other in confusion but then we just shrugged it off. I began to finish the Legolas I started when Claire spoke again.

"How are you so good at drawing? I've never seen anything this realistic!!" I contemplated how to answer her question and I saw her look at my face but I couldn't keep the eye contact.

"Well I have a social disease called Aspergers which limits my contact with people but allows me to excel at other things, like the arts and sketching..." I answered her quietly as John brushed some stray curls behind my ear and rested his chin on the top of my head.

"I have heard of that disease but never met anyone with it. What's it like?" Claire asked me sitting down and straddling the chair behind her.

"It's kind of different having it then reading about it, she just feels different and isolated from everybody else and the bullying doesn't help her out at all." John answered for me which I was thankful for as he held my hand helping me through the new  attention.

"I'm really so sorry I believed Kathleen when she told me what happened yesterday, see she's my best friend..." Claire mentioned with a sad smile sent my way.

"I'm really sorry, that was the first time I had ever been that angry with anybody. Usually as you have probably seen, John defends me from my critics that I have. Except we don't have gym together, it's one of two classes where we are separated. I usually have Allison, but she hates confrontation as much as I do." I told her my condolences and saw John write another thing on the spare piece of paper we have been using all morning.

_That's another thing that I love about you, your so easily apologetic even when it is not your fault._

"It is completely not your fault Christine, I wish I had known about your father and home life sooner I might have told my friends to go easier on you." Claire said taking a look at the piece of paper.

"Oh, the fire exits were you're idea? That was really good." Claire asked pointing to the piece of paper.

"Yep, I steal some of my best zingers from this one. She might be quite but she has just as much fire as anybody else does." John told her as the team came back with coke's and a Fanta strawberry for me since caffeine gives me a migraine. We all got the sodas handed around to everybody and all took out our lunches. I handed everything I had packed for John over to him which he gladly took. I caught a whiff of one of the worst foods I had ever tried Sushi coming from Claire's chair.

"What's in there?" John asked pestering Claire trying to get a rise out of her and we both snickered.

"Guess? Where's your lunch?" She questioned right back.

"I got it right here." He proclaimed waving my hand and I flushed scarlet. Everybody laughed at that one except for me I was to humiliated. John seemed to realize his mistake and took my hand again.

"Too much attention? I'm really sorry..." He told me glancing down and I wrapped my arms around him in a hug.

"Yes it was, from now on leave me out of the cruel and dirty jokes got it?" I told him with a laugh and he hugged back and when he left to make the rounds to everybody else I saw Andrew's massive lunch and felt sick right then and there. I saw Allison making her signature sandwich and giggled at her quirkiness.   

He went over to Brian first because he was closest to us.

"What are we having?" John asked Brain sitting in the chair next to him.

"Uh... It's just your standard regular lunch I guess..." Brain answered anxiously. John started to go through his lunch and pulled everything out.

"Milk?" John asked holding up the thermos.

"Soup." Brain answered shortly.

"That's apple juice." Brian said pointing to the juice box.

"Yes I am dyslexic doesn't mean I can't read." John replied sarcastically. 

"PB&J with the crusts cut off. Well Brain this is a very nutritious lunch all the food groups represented. Did your mom marry Mr. Roger?" John went on with whatever he had planed for right now. The Mr. Rodgers bit made me laugh, though Brain looked throughly confused and I wonder what he did with his childhood.

"No Mr. Johnson."

"Here's my impression of life at Big Bri's house..." He announced standing on top of our table at the end and I was slightly wondering what in the world was going to happen next.

_**(Father in Bold** Son in normal italics._

**Son!**

_Yeah dad?_

**How was your day, pal?**

_Great dad! How was yours?_

**Super! Say son how would you like to go fishing this weekend?**

_Great dad, but I have home work to do..._

**That's alright son, you can do it on the boat!**

_Gee!_

**Dear isn't our son swell?  
**

**Yes dear, isn't life swell?**

I had to admit that was pretty good until I heard the next thought come from yet again, Andrew.

"What about you're house?" I saw hurt flash across my boyfriends face at the idea of what he had in mind.

"You don't have too if you can't do it..." I told him quietly and he put on his false bravado.

"No, love I got this. Are you sure you want to see this?" He asked the group of teens. They all nodded slowly but doubtful and I plugged my ears when he started shouting obscenities directed towards him in this case.

_( **Father in Bold Italics,**_ **Mother in regular bold** _and son in italics.)_

**_Stupid, worthless, no-good, Goddamn, freeloading son of bitch, retarded, know it all, asshole, jerk.    you'll never be good enough for that girl, find someone more worthless like you asshole!_  **

**You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful. That girl is too perfect for you, find someone more worthless.**

_**Shut up bitch!! Go fix me a turkey pot pie!!**_  (John made the motion of his father slapping his mother.)

_What about you dad?_

**_Fuck You!_ **

_No dad, what about you?!  
_

**_Fuck you!!_ **

_No dad what about you?!  
_

**_Fuck You!!_ **

John made the motion of his father hitting him at the end and the entire room gasped except for me I jumped onto the table and helped him down to a chair and simply held him and didn't ask questions.

"I love you so much... You're everything I never knew I needed" He told as I dried his tears and held me even tighter until...

"That's bullshit. It's all apart of your image. I don't believe a word of it," Andrew stated like it was a fact, like the way the sky was blue. I really wanted throttle this guys in this moment as John let me go to confront Andrew. He actually looked really hurt by Andrew words and him not believing his true story.

"You don't believe me?" John asked as if it pained him and I wanted nothing more then for him to come back so I could comfort him again. 

"No..." Andrew answered though hesitantly.

"No?" John clarified.

"Did I stutter?" Andrew asked though much more boldly this time around. John rolled his right sleeve and I saw that burn the night he came to my house but every time I saw it it just made me want to erase it from his body.

"Do you believe this? Huh? It's about the size of a cigar. See, this what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage." He ran up the stairs ramp throwing books off the shelves and I went up behind him just at the end knowing what would probably happen next.

"See I don't think I need to sit here with you fucking dildo's anymore!!" I went right up to Andrew and slapped him loudly straight across the face.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" I yelled at him having never yelled or raised my voice at anyone.

"Well, he lies about everything else so I figured..." Andrew protested.

"Well from now on, keep you're figuring to yourself!!" I shouted and bolted to the fiction section where I saw my boyfriend in a heap and crying slightly. I sat down gently a bit further away not knowing if I was pushing anything or what I should do.

"Come here..." John told me quietly as I scooted over a hair and he grabbed my hand pulling me in front of him. He wrapped his arms me crushing me to his chest and I sighed and ran my fingers through his hair gently for a while.

"Can I ask you a question?" He asked after five minutes of sniffling and pure silence.

"You just did." I told him back sassily as that got a quick short laugh out of him.

"Seriously honey you can ask me absolutely anything, I don't judge." I told him firmly holding him to me.

"Am I destined to live in this hellhole of a town forever, while you shoot for the stars are you going to be held back due to me?" John questioned and I knew this had been something on his mind for quite sometime.

"No, never you'll come with me to wherever I might go, I am not leaving you in this hellhole." I responded him drying my own tears.

"What if you had to leave me behind?" John asked still shivering from tears and I knew what I had to do to make sure that he knew I was in this for the long hall. I kissed him on the lips.

It was everything I had ever dreamed of and then some he was startled at first then began to kiss me back just as sweet and gentle as I was him for starters. I knew that I wanted to stay here in this moment kissing John for the rest of my life, it was too perfect for me and I sighed and melted into the kiss. I held him there but eventually I needed to get more air into my lungs. He rested his forehead to mine again.

"What the fuck did I ever do to deserve you as my girl?" He questioned out loud as he caught his breath.

"You were you and we saved each other." I replied simply as we laughed together and held onto each other for another ten minutes just stealing more sweet and soft kisses.

"I've got an idea to make these guys loosen up a little bit. You aren't having any though and I'm never giving you any of it." I knew that he was talking about weed that he kept in his locker. I never wanted any of it anyhow.

"You guys want to go on a field trip?" John asked as they all nodded hoping they wouldn't regret this. We all walked out of the room in a single file line with John keeping watch from the front of the line holding my hand tightly.

"How do you know where Vernon went?" Claire demanded from behind me.

"We don't." Both of us answered at the same time giving each other small smiles.

"Well then how do you know when he'll be back?" She pressed trying to get out of this and go back into the room.

"I don't... Being bad feels pretty good huh? Though I don't recommend it for you, you're a goodie goodie... Remind me why I am with you again?" John answered Claire's demand then turned to flashing me a smirk as we passed his very dangerous locker.

"Because I am perfect?" I said blinking my eyes jokingly as he chuckled.

"Finally you're seeing the you I see." he said simply opening his locker and my boot nearly got cut off by a guillotine from the French revolution actually came down and nearly chopped off the front of my shoe. I remembered though and quickly jumped out of the way of the weapon of mass destruction.

"Slob" I heard Andrew mutter holding red cheek.

"My maid's on vacation." John replied finding his prized possession, his weed.

"Drugs?" Brian asked his voice cracking heavily.

"No way!! Screw that Bender put it back." John ignored him and grabbed my hand again squeezing it lightly as to say okay phase one complete.

"Drugs... That boy's got marijuana." Brain thought aloud.

"That was marijuana..." Brian pressed onward with his outward thinking.

"Shut up!!" Andrew yelled at Brian. He caught up with me and John.

"Do you approve of this?" He asked me gesturing to the drugs.

"I have never tried it and never plan on doing so. I made a promise to a family friend." I answered him being vague as to who my Uncle Derek was.

"We cross through the lab and then we double back... What say you sweetheart?" John asked me quietly I love when he asked my opinions on things. I nodded m head as Andrew protested.

"You'd better be right, if Vernon cuts us off you're dead asshole."

We walked through the halls in silence for a while until we ended up at a double hallway.

"Wait!! Hold it!! Wait!! Wait hold it!! We got through the cafeteria!!" I nodded my head following him until we heard Andrew voice his opinion.

"No the activities hall!!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!!" John accused grabbing my hand tightly and leading me down the hallway.

"We're through listening to you!!" I sensed bad things as John rolled his eyes we both knew that the activities hall was closed on the weekends. We stopped at the gate blocking our path.

"Shit!!" Andrew screamed at nothing.

"That was a great idea jagoff!!" John told me wrapping his arm around me when I was having a sensory overload.

"Everything is going to be alright, if worst comes to worst then I will cover for you guys and you lead them back to the library got it." He whispered to me as I nodded my head.

"That's the girl I love." He told me with a large smile.

"Fuck you!" Andrew shouted at John specifically.

"Oh you're gonna blame John in this scenario when it was your idea to come this way." I interjected as Claire screamed

"Fuck you!! Why din't you listen to John?"

"Were dead." Brain thought gravely.

"No just me..." John said as he took his arm off of my shoulders.

"What do you mean?" Brain asked and John put his marijuana down his pants.

"Keep your unit on this." He ordered Brian as he went up to me.

"Will be alright honey?" I asked as he squeezed my hand a gave me quick farewell kiss and nodded his head. He began running down the hallways singing

"I want to be airborn ranger!!" Extremely loudly knocking over posters and anything he could get his hands on.

Allison grabbed my hand and we raced back to the library making it back before anybody else. About three minutes later John came back from wherever it was he went to save us.

"How bad was the punishment this time?" I questioned worried it was something awful like five months of detention.

"Just the same amount as you, two months of detention hell with the Devil." He told kissing my hand as Vernon came back into the room.

"Mr. Wise-guy over here has taken it upon himself to go the gymnasium which means that you will have company these two months Miss Huston." Vernon told the group and I nodded my head.

"B-O-O-H-O-O" John drawled sarcastically wrapping an arm around my shoulder and I melted into his side.

"Everything's a big joke, huh Bender? The false alarm you pulled on Friday, false alarms are really funny aren't they? What if your home, what if your family..." Vernon berated him making him tense up.

"What if Miss. Huston happened to be in a room where there was a fire?" Vernon demanded of my boyfriend.

"Then it would be her over me, every single time. I would get her out of there even if I died in the process." John answered honestly and most people in the room gasped including Vernon himself.

"Well what about you're dope, what if that was on fire?" Vernon asked just trying to take up our time at this point. I got an idea for a zinger and wrote it down on the piece of paper.

 _Impossible sir, that's in Johnson's underwear._ I turned the paper showing it to John and he barked out a laugh and took the zinger.

"Impossible sir, that's in Johnson's underwear..." He responded as he held my hand giving my hand a thankful squeeze while drawing light circles around it in case Vernon started yelling. Andrew couldn't hold in his snicker though most people did a pretty decent job considering.

"You think this is funny? You think this is cute? You think he's bitching? Lemme tell you something he's a bum. You wanna see something funny, go and visit John Bender in five years! His "girlfriend" will have found a better man and he'll be left all alone." Vernon lectured as I stood up for him deciding it was my time and John's eyes widened with slight tear tracks coming down.

"You leave him alone!! He's not perfect and I know that and I am not either but for me there is no better man then John Bender." I defended him like he had done for me so many times before. Apparently that was enough to really set Vernon off, because he came speed walking to my table.

"Grab you're stuff where leaving." He demanded and that was when John decided he had enough of Vernon.

"She's not going anywhere." He shot back at Vernon.

"Oh I assure you you she is Bender. And I am not taking no for an answer from you." Vernon grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the room before I could even grab anything of mine that was left in the room. I only had my cellphone thank havens I always kept that in my Phantom bag. He took me into some dank and dark room and turned on the light.

"That was the last time I allow you or your dick of a boyfriend to make a fool out of me in front of those kids, do you hear me? I make thirty one thousand dollars a year and I have a home and I'm not going to throw it away because some girl has a temper tantrum and her boyfriend has a massive personality issue with me. But someday when you're both gone and away from this place and they've all forgotten about the both of you and you're both wrapped in your pathetic little lives. And I am going to go after Bender first, I'm gonna kick the living shit out of him, man, I'm gonna knock his dick into the dirt!!" Vernon began his speech and I felt vile build up in my stomach.

"A-are you t-threatening m-me?" I asked horrified that a teacher or vice principal whatever, could get away with this.

"What are you going to do about mouse? You think anybody's going to believe you? You think anybody is going to take your word over mine? They love me around here I'm a swell guy... You're a lying violent sack of shit with poor taste in men to boot.  And everybody knows it. I don't even know you bother dating a man like Bender, he doesn't love you and he never will because he doesn't have the heart to do so. You think you're tough, well let's just see about that!!" He struck me across the face and the sound echoed in the small room.

"Yeah that's what I thought, you're as meek as a mouse and a liar to boot. You never have seen Phantom of the opera." Then he went for the door leaving me having a sensory overload from all the yelling he just did to me plus the strike across. It took me nearly five minutes to think properly again.

"Okay finding a way out here." I wondered out loud and I saw the vents.

"That could work...I'm skinny enough to fit through there." I began to stand on my tip toes and I had to jump in order to reach the vents. I climbed through the air vents humming music of the night as I went through the vents. Until...

"Oh No!!" And I fell down through the the library into the fiction section.

"Sweetheart?" I heard John call out from his spot.

"Yeah it's me." I answered back with a laugh.

"I was not expecting that to really work!!" I yelled out as Vernon came running into the room. I paincked and stayed put and prayed that he wouldn't see me.

"Jesus Christ Almighty!!" Vernon yelled as he came bolting from his office.

"Goddamnit!! What in gods name was that?!" He screamed out to the crowd and I saw John barely holding back his laughter as he slinked up the stairs thinking they wouldn't miss him downstairs. He wrapped his arms around me and held me without asking questions until he saw my bright red check where a handprint was.

"What the fuck is that?!" whisper yelled as the gang downstairs covered for us when asked where Bender went.

"He threatened me... Saying that in a couple of years he would come back and beat you up... When he asked if I was tough as you were he slapped me across the face laughed at me then left. He said eventually you would get tired of me and that you don't have enough heart to stick with one girl..." I explained as the tears came back in full force though thankfully silently so the group downstairs wouldn't hear. Just as I told him what had happened Vernon got tired of not getting answers from them and went back to his office thankfully.

"That no good rotten son of a bitch!!" He screamed covering my ears before he did.

"What happened?" Brain asked concerned for why I hadn't come downstairs yet. Me and John went downstairs five minutes after I got him less furious by just telling him that I was fine and that he was obviously in this for the long hall no matter what Vernon said about him. Everybody saw my cheek and gasped.

"That's it, Vernon is literally in so much trouble!!" Allison screamed and everybody looked at her shocked including me and John because nobody had ever heard her yell that loud.

"Nobody could possibly ever believe me, unless... Oh my god Carl!!" I remembered the janitor who sometimes hangs around me on the days when John gets in so much trouble that he gets sent home for the day. He's really nice to me and would definitely help me out.

"What could the janitor do about this?" Claire wondered.

"He could check the security camera's in that room!!" John exclaimed after receiving his weed from Brian we all went up to the big circle in the middle of the library and I laughed as the drugs got into everybody's system. First time drugs were always hilarious to me and John. We saw Andrew run into a music section and scream so loud that he shattered the glass, Claire coughed when the smoke hit her and Brian said in a really wacky voice.

"Chicks can not hold der smoke that's what this is!!"

"Do you know how popular I am? I'm so popular everybody loves me at this school..." Claire lectured and I leaned into John who had his arms wrapped around me and holding me to him while running his fingers lightly through my curly hair.

"I think somebody's in denial poor thing..." I whispered to John and he laughed at me.

"Poor baby." He mentioned agreeing with me. Alison was sitting next to me as we began group talk as the weed left there system slowly.

"Got a middle name?" Andrew asked Brain who was sitting sprawled out on the couch across from the group.

"Yeah..." He seemed humiliated by it.

"You're middle is name is Ralph as in Puke." Allison mentioned flippantly not really caring. I laughed knowing of her amazing pickpocket skills she must have stolen his wallet.

"You're birthday is March 12th, you're five nine and a half, you weigh a hundred and thirty pounds, and you're social security number zero, four, nine, three, eight, zero, nine and one." She rattled off all of this information about him that even I was surprised she remembered all of that despite her dyslexia. Andrew looked the most impressed out of everybody in the room.

"Wow, are psychic?" He asked in awe.

"No..." She replied bored again.

"Then mind telling me how you know so much about me?" Brian asked afraid she was going to use this information against him. Allison reached into her bag and pulled out the wallet that had to Brain's.

"I stole you're wallet." She mentioned like it was going on a walk to the park.

"Give it back..." Brain protested reaching for the wallet.

"No." Allison replied firmly.

"Give it!!" Alison gave it back to Brain albeit reluctantly.

"That's great.... you're  a thief too huh?" Brain asked once he put his wallet in his pocket.

"I'm not a thief!!" Ally protested trying to clear her name.

"Multitalented!" Brain shot back angered at the fact of her taking his things.

"What's there to steal? Two bucks and a beaver slot!!" She pressed back angered at him for bringing her into this

"A what?" Even I didn't know what Allison was going on about this time.

"He's got a nudie picture in there! I saw it it's perverted!" Alison explained content that she won this round as I shock my head and rolled my eyes when Andrew demanded to see it.  

We all took this time to go through others things, John already knew what I kept in my Phantom bag but the others didn't and I wasn't really comfortable so they left me out of it and I plugged in my earbuds and went to work on the background for my Legolas sketch. I took them when John tapped my shoulder.

"Not to be offensive or anything sweets but you know that you're being really rude right now right?" John asked me and I shook my head no looking down.

"You know I'm not good at conversation anyway, John why do I even bother trying?" He handed me his wallet and at first I was really confused. I remember when we did this sort of thing out by his best friend other than me Kline's car and he had a bunch of pictures of girls in here.

"Why are you handing me this?" I questioned concerned for what I might find in there.

"Just open it and trust me you'll like it." I decided to just that and opened the wallet. All of those pictures were gone and replaced with ones of me. I felt tears come to my eyes and he just held me tighter to him the rest of the world falling away.

"When did you do this?" I asked sniffling when he dried my tears.

"The day after we did the item look through at Kline's car last year. Didn't you wonder why I suddenly asked for all those pictures of you when you were younger?" He explained and kept on holding me not wanting to let me go, he would get no complaints from me though.

"No were talking about me here, I am miss oblivious..." I mentioned trailing off twiddling my thumbs because I wasn't sketching anything at the moment.

"Yeah, but you're my Miss Oblivious and that's the most important thing." He told me nuzzling my forehead with his. We were once again brought out of our world by somebody this time Andrew.

"Isn't this the worst fake I.D you two have ever seen. He made himself sixty years old!!" Andrew told us laughing at the thing that he thought was so funny.

"Why did you even make a fake I.D. Brain?" I asked curious as to why a smart person like him would even need a fake identity.

"S-so I could vote..." He announced looking down at us as all of the others snickered a little bit.

"You want to see what's in my bag?" Allison asked and I instantly felt a bad feeling at this idea. But they didn't agree until Allison just dumped everything out of her bag.

"Holy shit!! What is all of this stuff?!" Andrew exclaimed just getting a sent of how broken and damaged Allison really was.

"Do you always carry this much shit in your bag?!" Brain wanted to get in on this conversation as well.

"Can I plug my earbuds in? I have a bad feeling where this conversation is going..." I asked quietly to John as he looked down at me.

"No, you have to be there for Allison, I'm going to let you go and you're going to go over there and be her rock. Can you do that?" John whispered to me.

"Of course!! I'll be back." I answered and gently kissed him before his arms loosened around me.

"Yeah... I always carry this much shit in my bag.... You never know when you might get in a jam...." Allison replied to the questions avoiding there eyes as I went over to her and gently took her hand and she looked up at me and signed

_Thank you_

I signed back

_You know that you don't have to tell them anything right Ally?_

She nodded but the conversation went on anyway.

"Are you going to be like a shopping bag lady? You know like sit in alleyway's and like to buildings and wear men's shoes and that kind of thing?" Brian wondered and I saw the emotions wash across the face of my best girl friend.

"I'll do what I have to." Allison responded fervently with a fire in her eyes.

"Why do you have to do anything?" Brain asked worried for her as a friend or maybe more I couldn't tell.

"My home life is... Unsatisfying..." Allison told him and I knew she was downplaying because she spends most of her nights at my house crying about how much she hates her parents.

"So, you're saying you'd subject yourself to the violent dangers of the Chicago streets because you're home life is unsatisfying?" Brian questioned now definitely concerned as more than a friend.

"I don't have to run away and live on the street... I could run away and go to the ocean, I can go to the country, I can go to the mountains, I could go Israel, Africa, Afghanistan..." Allison named off all of the places that she could go as a plane pilot, I knew that was her dream to be able to fly with the sky.

"Well everyone's home life is like that, we can't live with our parents forever." Andrew argued and for the moment I forgot he was even a part of this conversation.

"Nevermind... Forget it it's cool!!" She began to put everything back in her purse but Brian stopped her.

"What's the deal?" He asked stopping her hand.

"No deal geek!! Forget it leave me alone!!" Allison screamed throwing my hand away.

"Wait a minute, now you're carrying all that crap in you're purse. Either you really want to run away or you want people to think you do." Brain said trying to reason with her and get her to calm down.

"EAT SHIT!!" She yelled running down the ramp and going to the fiction section. I showed Brain exactly where she went and asked him if he knew sign language.

"Yes I do, but why are you asking?" He responded.

"Because that's Allison's main form of communication she hates to talk to people." I explained as he went slowly down the ramp.

"Well that escalated quickly. Did you know about that?" Andrew asked me sitting down in Brains spot.

"Yes I did, most nights she doesn't spend at home, she was downplaying everything it's rather psychotic at her home. Her father's an alcoholic and her mom has Borderline Personality disorder they mostly ignore her at least that's the big thing..." I explained the home life of my best friend as I heard Brain softly comforting her. Later on Allison had tear stained eyes and so did Brain but we wanted to move to happier topics.

"What would I do for a million bucks? Well I guess I'd do as little as possible..." Andrew answered Claire's question.

"That's boring." She responded rolling her eyes at him.

"How am I supposed to answer?" Andrew asked disbelieving.

"The idea is to search your mind to the absolute limit. Like would you drive to school naked?" I flushed and shook my head no and everyone laughed at me.

"Would I have to get out of the car?" Andrew questioned the group.

"Of course!!" Claire told him scoffing at the idea of not.

"Spring or winter?" I shuttered at the idea of doing something like that in winter and I fault John start to laugh and wrap his arms around me again and I snuggled to his chest.

"In the front or the back?" Andrew kept asking questions.

"Doesn't matter." Claire answered shortly getting peeved at all of the questions toward her dare.

"Yes." Andrew answered firmly and Allison decided to join in as well.

"I'd do that!" I felt one of her stories coming on and I braced myself to try not laugh at her and give anything away.

"I'll do anything sexual, I don't need a million dollars either..." Allison continued and I almost lost it right there I picked up my sketchbook in order to have my hands doing something and began to sketch on the table.

"You're lying." Claire said and I wondered if I gave it away but John shook his head.

"I already have... I've done just about everything except a few things that are illegal... I'm a nymphomanic." She told the group and I bit my lip to keep myself from laughing at her.

"Lie." Claire answered not believing my best friend for an instant.

"Are you're parents aware of this?" Brain asked with wide owl eyes and I saw her smirk.

"The only person I told was my shrink..." Allison said and kept the attention on he rolling.

"And what did he do when you told him?" Andrew asked and I could feel Allison's eyes on me.

"That's a brilliant question Sporto... Want to answer that Chris?" She asked me and signed

 _Whatever you say just go with it I'm so sorry to bring you into this but miss pristine doesn't believe me._ I smiled and did as she signed to me.

"He nailed you..." I answered the question and felt John give me a kiss to my forehead and quietly snicker at the story we were making up.

"Very nice." Claire deadpanned finally believing her story and I did a small fist bump in the air.

"I don't think from a legal standpoint what he did was wrong Ally I mean you did pay him so it technically wasn't rape." I continued as Allison laughed at me in maniacal way.

"He's an adult!!" Claire protested disgusted at the idea of what we were saying.

"He's married too." Allison replied relishing in everyone's attention.

"Do you have any idea how completely gross that is?" Claire exclaimed trying to gag.

"Well the first couple of times..." Claire interrupted her rant and shoved in her own opinion

"First few times?! You mean he did it more than once!!"

"Sure." Allison said simply.

"Are you crazy?" Claire asked absolutely appalled.

"Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink..." Brian added and signed to me who was sitting with John behind everyone else.

_She's a compulsive liar isn't she?_

I was shocked that he figured it out that quickly

 _Yeah she is, but she's a good person, actually some of her stories are pretty funny._ Alison turned to Claire.

"Have you ever done it?" She asked Claire and smirked like she found her weak point.

"I don't even have a psychiatrist..." Claire said avoiding the question,

"Have you ever done it with a real person?" Allison pressed trying to get Claire to confess what we all knew.

"Now didn't we already cover this..." Claire stated but Andrew cut her off.

"You never answered the question." He told her.

"I'm not about to discuss my private life with a bunch of strangers." Claire informed everybody.

"It's kind of a double edged sword isn't it?" Allison questioned the group.

"What is?" Claire asked

"Well if you haven't.... You're a prude, but if you have.... You're a slut. It's a trap. You want to but you can't when you wish you didn't right?" Allison told us all and as I thought about it I realized that she was absolutely right. I was saving myself for the perfect guy, in this case John when I was ready.

"You were what?" John sputtered and I flushed crimson.

"I said that aloud didn't I?" They all nodded their heads and I curled up into a ball getting out of John's arms.

"What's happening?" Brain asked worried about me on the ground.

"She's having a sensory overload. It's part of being an Aspe sorta like a panic attack..." John told me scooping me into his arms and carrying me to the fiction section of the library humming Music of the night. I heard none of the conversation going on downstairs only the pounding of my heart and the screaming of my brain yelling 

_You done messed up the best thing that has ever happened to you, he will leave you for being too clingy or too prudish._

"Shush... Sweetheart will you look at me please?" I heard John asking me as I opened my eyes and seeing his rich chocolate brown eyes looking concerned.

"I knew that you were a virgin from the first day that I introduced you to my friends the way that you flushed whenever a dirty joke in any way was told. I don't care though, and the fact that you waited for me makes it even better. I'm not going anywhere you'll have to pry me from your side by the end of the day." John explained to me kissing away the tears that had began to pool in my eyes.

"Are you ready to go join everyone else? Something tells me Queenie is about to spill her guts and I don't think you'll want to miss that..." John told me when I nodded my head I heard Claire's scream of

"NO! I NEVER DID IT!!" 

I found myself shocked that Allison had made her crack when Brain scooted over on the couch so I could sit comfortably with John and I saw Brian sign to me

 _Everything okay now? You sorta gave me the spooks, does that happen a lot?_ I found myself giving a shy sad smile and answering with

 _Yeah it does and it's no fun kind of limits me bonding with people cause they think I'm freaky or weird._ I explained as i saw him respond with

 _Well I don't think you're either of those things they just don't know you._ I found myself in tears again and John got rid of them.

"I never did it either... I'm not a  nymphomanic... I'm a compulsive liar." Allison told her finally being honest with Claire as I chuckled at the fact that it took her this long.

"You're such a bitch!! You did that on purpose just to fuck me over!!" Claire yelled at Allison as she shrank and told her how she really felt about sex and love.

"I would do it though... If you love someone it's okay..." Allison pleaded her cause as Claire still yelled at her.

 "I can't believe you, you're so weird. You don't say anything all day and then when you open your mouth... You unload all these tremendous lies all over me!!" I defended my best friend because it was the right thing to do.

"You're just pissed because she got you admit something that you didn't want to." I saw everyone stare at me because they hadn't known I had come back to the group.

"Okay fine, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre..." She got interrupted by Andrew.

"What's bizarre? I mean were all pretty bizarre, some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." He said and I wholeheartedly agreed.

"I mean if the world were full of "Normal" people it would be pretty boring wouldn't it?" I asked the group of people whom I considered friends.

"How are you bizarre?" Allison asked Andrew.

"Can't think for himself." Claire answered pointedly.

"She's right... Do you guys know what, uh, how I got in here. I tapped Larry Lester's buns together..." He told the group and I heard Claire laugh the bitch.

"That was you?" Brain asked surprised.

"Yeah, you know him?" Andrew questioned right back tearing up and for the first time that entire day I felt empathy for Andrew Clark.

"Yeah I know him." Brain replied still shell shocked that someone who hurt someone he knew was right in front of him.

"Then you know how hairy he is right? Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off and some skin too..." I felt repulsed by the image that was in my mind and John shook his head in surprise and a little disgust.

"And the bizarre thing is I did to please my old man... I tortured this poor kid because I wanted him to think I was cool. He's always going off about, you know the wild things he used to do. And I got that feeling that he disappointed I never let loose on anyone, right... So I'm... I'm in the locker room and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry'd undressing a few lockers down from me. Yeah kinda... He's kinda weak. And I started thinking about my father and his attitude towards weakness. And the next thing I knew I was on top of him and had started wailing on him... And my friends they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards I am sitting in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry having to go home and...and explain what had happened to him. And the humiliation, the fucking humiliation he must have felt. It must have been unreal... I mean how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way... It's all because of me and my old man. I fucking hate him!! He's like this mindless machine I can't even relate to anymore. I wish he had taken you're papa's place Christine because he's honestly the worst person alive to me. Here's a direct quote from him "Andrew you gotta be number one!! I won't tolerate losers in this family... You're intensity is for shit!! Win, Win WIN!!" You son of a bitch. You know sometimes I wish my knee would give and I wouldn't have to wrestle anymore... He could forget all about me..." I started crying when Andy mentioned my father and I heard John getting a little sniffles too though he was too strong to show it.

"I think you're dad and my dad should go bowling..." John drawled and that caused Andrew to crack a tiny smile and laugh a watery laugh Allison signed to me.

_My father could buy the drinks..._

"What did she say this time?" Andrew asked us not being able to read sign language.

"She said that her father can buy the drinks." Me and Brain answered at the same time.

"It's like me, you know, with my grades.... Like, when I, when I step outside myself kinda and I look at myself in the mirror you know? And I see me but I don't like what I see I really don't." Brain stated looking at the ground.

"Why don't you like yourself?" I asked tears pooling in my bright blue eyes and John supported me holding me even tighter.

"'Cause I'm stupid.... 'Cause I'm failing shop.  See we had this assignment, to make a ceramic elephant, and we had eight weeks to do it like we were supposed to and it was like a lamp and when you pull on the trunk a light was supposed to turn on... My light didn't turn on. I got an F on that assignment, never got an F in my life... When I signed up yo know for the course I mean I thought I was playing it real smart you know? 'Cause I thought I'll take shop it'll be an easy way to keep up my grade point average..." John interrupted him knowing the answer.

"Why did you think it would be easy?"

"Have you seen some of the dopes who take shop?" Brain asked John and I saw a little hurt flash in his eyes.

"I take shop... You must be a fucking idiot!!" John said to him and Brian looked hurt as well.

"I'm a fucking idiot because I can't make a lamp?" Brain accused.

"No you're a genius because you can't make a lamp..." John told him and I knew this saying where he was going about breaking the mold and fixing our school system.

"What do you know about trigonometry?" Brain asked.

"I could care less about trigonometry..." John answered.

"Bender do you know without trigonometry there would be no engineering?" Brain informed my boyfriend as they debated.

"Without lamps there would be no light." John shot back at Brain and before the conversation could carry anymore Claire got in the middle of it.

"Okay so neither one of you is any better than the other one..." She started a new topic the things we were good at that and the things we could do that were odd.

"I can write with my toes, I can also eat, brush my teeth..." Allison said going first.

"With your feet?" Claire asked shocked and I nodded my head.

"Play heart and soul on the piano." Allison finished.

"What about you Christine?" Brain asked me.

"This might be cheating but I can quote the entirety of Phantom Of The Opera." I explained blushing from the attention.

"What's your favorite line in the entire show? Music and non music." Andrew asked me sitting next to Claire.

"My favorite sung line is Masquerade paper faces on parade, masquerade hide your face so the world will never find you. My favorite regular line is easy it's..." John interrupted me knowing exactly where this was going.

"A toad madam? Perhaps it is you who are the toad!" He tried his best Ramin impression and that made everybody laugh. 

"I can make homemade spaghetti!!" Brain exclaimed when I asked him. Next went Andrew with his.

"I can tape all your butts together..." He said not able to think of anything else and that made everyone chuckle softly.

"I want to see or hear what Claire can do." John told her as Claire's face flushed.

"I can't do anything..." Claire protested trying to plead her case and get out of this alright.

"John, don't force her to do something she doesn't want to." I told him sternly and he thankfully let it go.

No I'll do it just swear to god you won't laugh... I can't believe that I'm actually doing this..." She began to do her makeup with lipstick inside of her shirt. I wasn't much of a makeup person but it was definitely something I hadn't seen before.

"All right, great!! Where did you learn to do that?" Andrew asked leading all of us in applause as she answered.

"Summer camp, seventh grade..."

"That was great Claire... My image of you is totally blown..." John mentioned sarcastically and I felt an argument coming on.

"You're a shit!! Don't do that to her, you swore to god you wouldn't laugh!!" Allison defended and I wondered why suddenly she was defending the girl who called her a bitch less than an hour ago.

"Am I laughing?" John asked aloud and I had to agree with him that he wasn't laughing.

"You fucking prick!!" Andrew exclaimed.

"Why do you care what I think, anyway? I don't even count right? I could disappear and it wouldn't make any difference.... I may as well not even exist at this school right remember?" John asked Andrew getting angry at the words that he said earlier that day and I could see the regret in Andrew's eyes.

"You know I have just as much feelings as you do and it hurts just as much when somebody dumps all over them!!" Claire protested trying to plead her case to John and I felt him tense and before I knew it he whispered something to Brain.

"He told me to cover your ears because he needs to yell at Claire is that okay?" Brian asked me with a nervous smile and I nodded and smiled back. He did just that and I couldn't hear a damn thing aside from me humming music of the night to keep a sensory overload from coming on. When John came back I signed to Brain

 _Thank you so much Brian, I know that I don't know you very well but I think we could be really good friends._ Brain sent me a large smile.

 _Really? I mean of course I just don't have a ton of friends but we have gym together right?_ I chuckled at his enthusiasm as we began a new topic when Andrew spoke up this time.

"My god are we going to become like our parents..."

"Not me... Never." Claire stated like the idea burned her.

"It's unavoidable, it just happens..." Allison stated looking at her shoes.

"What happens?" Claire asked and I answered for Allison.

"When you get older you're heart dies."

"Who cares?" I heard John wonder out loud with a harsh tone pf voice and I wrapped my arms him and watched all of his tension go away.

"I care." I replied slight tears in my eyes.

"You're the only one that does my angel of music." John kissed my cheek and maneuvered me so I was sitting in the middle of him and Brian and he spooned me from behind.

"Um, I was thinking I mean. I know it's kind of a weird time, but I was just wondering, umm, what's gonna happen to us on Monday? When we're all together again? I mean I consider you guys my friends I'm not wrong am I?" Brain asked our small group as Allison came to join us on the couch to hold Brian's hand.

"No...." Andrew answered quietly.

"So... Monday what happens?" Brain pressed the issue even harder trying to understand this concept.

"Are we still friends you mean? If we're friends now that is?" Claire questioned with a sad smile that I sensed bad things from.

"Yeah..." Brain nodded his head and I could tell he sensed bad things as well.

"Do you want the truth?" Claire asked hesitantly.

"Yeah I want the truth..." Brain answered shrinking in on himself.

"I don't think so..." Claire told us looking down.

"With all of us or just some of us?" Allison asked going into protective mode over me and Brain's feelings.

"With all of you..." She replied.

"Oh that's a real nice attitude Claire!!" Andrew accused his girlfriend? I honestly had no idea I bet best friends still figuring out there feelings.

"Oh be honest Andy... if Brain came up to you in the hall on Monday, what would you do? I mean picture this, you're with all your sports buddies and Brain said hi. Sure, on a good day you would say hi back, but once he left you would say that you don't really know him." Claire stated this as if it were fact.

"No Way!!" Andrew protested but I knew it was futile 

"What about me?" Allison asked Claire eyes pleading and I could feel the anger in me rising up.

"Same exact thing..." That was my breaking point when I got out of John's arm and I began to loose my temper.

"You are a bitch!!" I screamed at her while everyone looked at me with shock including John, Brain and Allison.

"Why? 'Cause I'm telling the truth that makes me a bitch?" Claire protested dramatically.

"No!! Because you know horrible of a thing it is to do that to somebody! And yet you don't have the guts to stand up to your friends and say that you like who you wanna like!!" I exclaimed angrily at her crying hot tears of anger at Claire's direction.

"Okay, what about you, you hypocrite? Will don't you take Allison to see your stupid ass musicals? Or walk with Brian during gym class come Monday Morning? What about Andy for that matter, what about me? What will you and Benders friends say if they saw you talking to us in the hallway? Bender will have to lie and say that he was thinking about doing us in order to make us fit in?" Claire yelled right back at me and I felt John's heavy boots carry me sobbing over to Allison and Brain on the couch where we all huddled together and Allison hummed music of the night to calm me back down.

"Don't you ever talk about my friends!! Or my girlfriend for that matter, you've given her nothing but distaste for three years and now you suddenly want to become buddy buddy with her?! You don't know any of my friends, and you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends so just stick with what you know, shopping, nail polish, you're fathers BMW and you're poor rich drunk mother in the Caribbean!!" John lashed out and I felt myself wanting to protect him more but I could feel a sensory overload come over my body at all the screaming.

"Shut up!!" Claire cried out sobbing her eyes out.

"And as far as you and I are concerned about what's gonna happen when we walk down the hallways together you can forget it!! Because after the way you have been treating my girlfriend it's never gonna happen!!" He yelled back at Claire as she screamed out

"I HATE YOU!!"

"Yeah? Good." John remarked making his way back to the pile of me in between Allison and Brain.

"Soo... Can I have my girlfriend back or not?" John asked the two jokingly and Allison answered him.

"Nope you don't deserve her back, I'm keeping her." We all laughed at her as a somehow squirmed my way out of the hug.

"Then I assume that me, Chrissy and Allison are better then you guys, us three weirdo's? You two wouldn't do something like that to me right?" He asked turning to Alison specifically.

"I don't have any friends aside from Chris, I'm sort of a misfit..." She told him glancing down upon her shoes.

"What about you Christine?" Brain questioned turning over to face me.

"I am with you Brain, I don't think that I ever fit in with John's friends anyway..." I explained looking down and twiddling my thumbs until John's hand stopped me.

"Do you really think that?" He asked me sort of hurt that I hadn't mentioned this before.

"Yeah I do. Let's face it John when your friends are talking about the one black sheep in our group we both know that they're discussing me..." I mentioned thinking back to all the times I have heard them discreetly talk about me thinking I don't know about it.

"They did what?!" He exclaimed then realized that they only had these conversations whenever his dad beat him up so bad that he couldn't come to school and Auntie Julia drove to his home and took him recover at ours.

"Umm... Right... You don't know about that you were always gone when they would secretly talk about me behind my back..." I told him not looking at him instead finding my Phantom messenger bag extremely interesting.

"Sweets... Come on look at me..." I did as he requested.

"Did that actually happen? Because if it did then I'm through with them too." Allison rushed to save me by nodding her head.

"Yes, it did in fact I was the one to bring t to her attention because I thought they were talking about me turns out they meant Chris." She told him honestly and hugged me on my other side.

"Those sons of bitches are so dead!!" John yelled out as I hushed him.

"Don't be mad at them honey, it's me that's the odd women out in this case I can't fit in anywhere..." I told him hugging him to make him relax and once he did he nuzzled my nose with his.

"I just want to tell you, each of you, that I wouldn't do that... I wouldn't and will, because I think that's really shitty." Brain announced to the entire room.

"You're friends wouldn't mind because they all look to us..." Claire told us confidently but this time Brain put her in her place.

You're so conceited Claire. You're so conceited. Why are you like that?" He demanded as Claire began to cry again.

"I don't know, I don't... You don't understand you don't... You're not friends with the same type of people me and Andy are friends with, you don't know the kind of pressure they can put on you!!" Claire yelled at Brain as John gently covered my ears but Brain's voice still rang out loud and clear so I just uncovered them.

"I don't understand what? You think I don't understand pressure Claire? Well fuck you!! Fuck you!!" Brian yelled as Allison and I comforted him while John helped us sending a glare to the other two.

"Know why I am here today? Do you? I am here because Mr. Ryan found a gun in my locker." Brain confided in us and my eyes went wide with horror.

"Why'd you have a gun in your locker?" Andrew asked concern lacing his eyes.

"I tried... You pull the fucking trunk on it the light is supposed to go on.... And it didn't..." I felt so bad for Brain and I wondered if his parents got him checked out for Aspergers because right now he was having a sensory overload. I hummed a quiet song while Allison and John comforted him trying to calm him down again.

"What was the gun for Brain?" Andrew asked still pressing the issue.

"Will you fucking let it go!! He's having a sensory overload." John yelled at Andrew as he shrank into himself.

"Just forget it..." Brain said once we got him calmed down.

"You brought it up man!!" Andrew yelled back but Brain continued his story.

"I can't have an F, I can't have it. Even if I aced the rest of the semester I'd still only have a B. And everything's ruined for me!!" I consoled him into Allison's arms again.

"Oh Brain...." I mentioned feeling sorry for my new best friend I felt like.

"So I considered my options you know..." I put my hand on his leg to stop it from bouncing up and down another Aspe trait.

"Suicide is never an option Brain." I said firmly as everybody around us felt the air tense.

"Well I didn't do it did I? I'm still here aren't I?" He asked peeved slightly for me getting in on his business.

"Was it a hand gun?" Andrew asked.

"No, it was a flare gun, went off in my locker."  I heard Andrew snicker from across the room where he and Claire were sitting arm in arm.

"It's not funny..." We all started laughing at that point and the tense air became light again.

"Yes it was, fucking elephant got destroyed!!" Brain corrected as we all laughed again and caught our breathes.

"You know what I did to get in here? Nothing.... I had nothing better to do" Allison told us as we all were holding our sides from laughter.

"You're laughing at me?" Allison questioned as she giggled with us.

"No were not!!" Brain defended wrapping his arm around her.

"Yeah you are!!" As she melted into Brain's side and they looked absolutely adorable.

We wanted a break from sitting around and having depressing talk but I needed to get back to cubby where Vernon had put me.

"Do you have to go back soon?" Claire asked me.

"Yeah I want to phone Carl first though..." I told her grabbing my phone and dialing his number.

"Hello?" Carl asked as he picked up his mobile.

"Carl? It's Christine... I need a favor from you." I replied trying to make this conversation go faster so I could back before Vernon realized I was gone.

"Ahh Miss Huston, a pleasure to hear from you. What can do for you?" I knew he was smiling on the other end of the phone.

"Well... See Vernon took me out of detention today, and I have some information on video camera's that could get him fired." I explained as I felt him laugh.

"It just so happens that I too have information to get him fired what do you say on Monday we compare facts?" Carl told me and I shyly smiled.

"Yeah I can do that thanks again bye..." I then let the other end go as I climbed up through the vent again landing lightly on a desk.

I heard the clank of shoes and I heard the jingle of keys.

"So this is where he put you? Usually he puts the other one in here..." I heard Carl say out loud as I gave him a hug.

"That prick hit you didn't he?" Carl felt my cheek lightly.

"Yes, he did he spoke a bunch of other garbage that should be on the tape." I explained pointing to the video camera.

"Well he's definitely getting his sorry ass fired and we'll have a massive party once he leaves with Bender as well." Carl told me grabbing his ladder and I went back to the library. I opened the door and everyone was packing up to leave and Vernon was gone from the office. The first thing I saw was the face of my best friend.

"Ally? What in the world?" I asked her aloud looking at her and seeing her entire face.

"Claire did it, to help me get with Brain..." She mentioned quietly blushing.

"And did it work?" I questioned her with a laugh knowing the answer as John walked up next in his trench coat handing me my sketchbook and giving me a light kiss.

"What do you think?" Brain asked as he kissed Allison's cheek.

"You didn't have to change though, I would have accepted the old you as well Allison." Brain told her kissing her check and she blushed harder as all five of us walked out to the cars. My Auntie still had to work at the local theater so I was taking John back with me.

I watched out of the corner as Allison and Brain kissed and so did Andrew and Claire as me John cut across the football field to get back home.

"So hell wasn't too bad today I hope, we do have two more months of it though that's the bad thing..." I asked John as he kissed me and told me.

"Hell was perfect because you were there for me." I kissed him again and we walked back to my home laughing and joking 

 

   
 

 

 

  

  

 

      

   

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

           

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

    

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all!! This is a one shot idea that I have had in my mind for a long time because this is one of my favorite characters is John Bender. However I never saw him and Claire as really a lasting fit, they just seemed too different and not enough in common. Plus I always thought Claire would work better with Brain. So hence, this modern au because I love these characters and wanted to add in my own to the mix the shy artist with Aspergers. I'm starting to notice a trend with all of my OC's and myself they all have Aspergers and so do I...


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